180-1 A Place-Based Summer Earth Science Program for High School Students and Educators in Southwest Virginia

Session: Geoscience Outreach Efforts to Broaden Participation (Posters)

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Abstract:

The Virginia Department of Education Governor’s School Program is designed to provide specialized educational experiences beyond those typically available in schools. For the last two summers, the Natural Sciences Department and support staff at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise has offered a two-week residential Summer Regional Governor’s School in STEM-H. This fieldwork and laboratory-based program is open to high school students from 21 counties and cities in Southwest Virginia and highlights the unique geology and biodiversity of the area. Students were housed for one week at the Clinch River Ecological Education Center at the Oxbow Center in St. Paul, VA and one week on campus at UVA Wise.

The same team concurrently ran two one-week teacher professional development camps for local K-12 STEM educators, allowing the students and teachers to collaborate throughout the program. Activities focused on a range of field and lab experiences on topics such as aquatic ecosystems and water quality, carbon cycling, soil microbes, salamander habitat conservation, and environmental resiliency. Different modules were facilitated by various faculty from the department as well as local experts from relevant fields, with the help of undergraduate student assistants from UVA Wise, who also gained experience and developed leadership skills. This approach both provided teachers with several new contacts and resources and exposed students to a variety of local career possibilities associated with Earth and environmental science. At the end of each week, teachers created and presented posters highlighting what they had learned. Throughout the two weeks of the Governor’s School, students kept journals, completed assessments and reflections, and periodically presented about the different modules. At the end of the program, the students demonstrated a deeper and more integrated understanding of environmental issues, especially as they related to local systems in Southwest Virginia. Most importantly, the students and teachers reported a newfound appreciation for the environmental and biological diversity that can be found in the region and a recognition of their importance to the area and the people living here.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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